Holy Spirit. Bible Doctrine. Bible Doctrine. Holy Spirit

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1 Biblical-Philosophical Psychology 148-Spiritual virtues 88 (Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will.10) Bible Doctrines (The True-Good-Beautiful ) T/G/B Eschatology Thanatology Ecclesiology Israelology Dispensationalism Doxology Hodology Soteriology Hamartiology Natural Law Anthropology Angelology Pneumatology Christology Paterology Trinitarianism Cosmology Theology Proper Bibliology Natural Theology 5: Hermeneutics 4: Linguistics 3: Epistemology 32 - Existence 50 - Causation 4 2:Metaphysics 32 - Trans. 50 1: Reality - Logic 32, - Truth 32 P.R John 8:32; Eph. 2:1-10; 1 Cor. 10:31. Prep for Bible class. 3 parts to Bible class (1) 10 min on nature of man and SL, (2) 20 min on actual-potential & Pure Act, (3) 45 min on nature of God as Father and the human will. Man is a rational or intellective animal. He is neither an angel nor a beast, he is neither pure spirit or pure animal, but a curious combination of two. He is the strangest creature God ever made. He has a foot in both the animal and divine world. As an animal, he has three dominant desires: survival, nourishment, and reproduction. He possesses sense appetites to aid in protection, nourishment, and procreation. God has also given man emotions to aid him in interacting with his environment. The body is all about sense appetites. On the rational and intellective side, man is like God. He possesses a spiritual intellect and will. This capacity enables man to abstract and think universally. It enables him to orient to God. The intellect and will have appetites, like the sense appetites, except these appetites are for unlimited good. The intellective appetites is never satisfied with limited goods. Its insatiable appetite can only be fulfilled in God and POG. We all live in a very curious interaction and conflict between our sense appetites and intellective appetites. We can easily see that something is very wrong with man in that his spiritual intellect, which should dominate his senses, is often but a drop in the ocean of his sense appetites and emotions. Prior to the Fall it was not this way. We are all born into this disordered state. At regeneration the intellect and will undergo a radical reorientation God as Infinite Good. God in His grace has given us believers the HS to enable them to live the God-centered lives for Infinite Good (Eph. 4:30-5:9; Gal. 5:16-25; 1 Cor. 2:9-3:3; Rom. 8:5-9 ). Stage 3 Christian metaphysician = life of glory! Metaphysical understanding of God, creation, the spiritual life, man, and Bible doctrine. Transcendent relationship with God rather than nominal relationship with God. Stage 3 Stage 2 Stage 1 Holy Spirit Stage 2 Christian doctrinal believer = life of doctrine! Still Nominal understanding of God. Increase in perinoetic truth about God & the spiritual life. However, still plagued with pagan philosophy in view of God s nature due to lack of metaphysics, which is due to modernism s philosophical assumptions. He has become more stable, but still very dependent on others for confidence in absolute truths. Orientation still more about words than the reality. Holy Spirit Bible Doctrine Bible Doctrine Stage 1 Christian baby = life of ups and downs. Utilitarian understanding of God. All baby believers have a great deal of pagan views of God due to pagan horizon of meaning. All baby believers are tossed here and there by kosmos diabolicus, Eph. 4:14. For baby believers it is primarily about pragmatism. In other words, if it works or feels good, they think it must be true. 1

2 Causation.4 (From mutable coffee to immutable God) 1. Evidence for God begins with the sense observation: Romans 1:19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Psalm 19:1 For the choir director. A Psalm of David. The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hand 2

3 2. Note the self-evident nature of change all around us. These changes come in various forms: a. Spatial change: leaf falling off tree. b. Qualitative change: rain filling in water puddle. c. Quantitative change: hot coffee becoming cold coffee. d. Substantial change: living mosquito becoming dead matter. 3. All change is a matter of something going from a potential to an actual. Cold coffee cannot come from nothing (i.e., hot coffee). 4. However, nothing can go from potential to actual unless there is something actual to move the potential to actual. Potential in and of itself is nothing. There must be an actual something with causal power (coldness in air or ice cubes to make hot coffee become cold coffee). However, these actuals are also potential and need a causal power for their existence as well, and so on and so on. 3

4 5. It is critically important to understand two types of causes. This is a source of great misunderstanding. a. Accidental causation - Back in time, horizontal, linear causation. - Father, son, son, son. - Accidental causation of cold coffee. b. Essential causation. - At-the-moment causation, dependent, derivative, hierarchical. - Does not need to be traced to a horizontal First Cause (Big Bang) - Paint brush. - Hand, stick, rock. - First Cause must presently exist. The dependence is now. - Essential causation illustrated by actualizing potential of coffee to be 4 off the floor. - Essential causation illustrated by actualizing the very existence of the coffee. 4

5 6. From the actualization of coffee to First Actualizer, First Cause, God. a. Change occurs. This cannot be denied (contrary to Parmenides). b. Change can only occur if things that change have potentials which can be actualized. c. Any change requires a changer. Whenever a potential is actualized there must be something already actual to actualizes it. d. However, this series cannot go on forever. There must be a Pure Act that needs no actualization. 5

6 e. This Pure Act is Esse, God Himself: Pure Actuality, the Unmoved Mover, the Unactualized Actualizer. f. Any essential causation ultimately requires a First Cause who is Pure Act, who needs no actualization. g. Since Pure Act has no potential that needs to be actualized, He is immutable. h. Since Pure Act is immutable, He is eternal. Time entails changeability. God must exist outside of time altogether. He neither comes to be or passes away, but simply IS without beginning to end. 6

7 i. Since Pure Act is immutable and timeless, He must be immaterial. He has no corporeal of any sort of body. j. Since Pure Act has no unactualized potentials, He is perfect. All imperfections are but the failure to reach some potential. Something is perfect when it has all actualized potentials, without privations. As Pure Act, He is devoid of any unrealized potentialities and therefore possesses maximum perfection. k. Since Pure Act is maximum perfection, He must be one/unique. Differences would always be due to some lack of perfection privation. 7

8 l. Since Pure Act is power behind all existing things, He is Omnipotent. To have power is simply to actualize a potential. He is the source of all of the actualizing of power on earth. He is Pure Power. m. Since Pure Act is the cause of all intellects and knowledge, He must be omniscient. Intelligence entails three capacities: to grasp abstract concepts, to put concepts together for thoughts, to reason from premises to conclusion. Cause cannot give effects what it does not have. n. In sum, we begin with a cup of coffee and end with God who is Esse, Pure Act, unique, eternal, immaterial, incorporeal, perfect, all-powerful, one, omniscient, and all-knowing. o. Again, it does not matter if the coffee existed forever. We are talking about right now causality. In other words, we are talking about essential causation that requires God for anything to exist. God as Creator is more like a violin player than an automobile manufacturer. 8

9 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will.10 Luke 11:2 And He said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Principles on the personage and gender of God. 1. All human language used of God is analogous. God is depicted in a number of ways in the Bible: despotic king, pregnant woman, father, judge, eagle, lamb, et. al. 2. God transcends the ability of human language to capture Him. He is simply too amazing, too incomprehensible in His being. Although we can know things about Him, we cannot know exactly what Existence/Esse is. 3. Literally God is not a person. When we think of a person we think of people with bodies designed for food, mobility, and procreation. We also think of a person as someone who thinks discursively, can learn, and is locatable in space. God has no body, does not learn, and is everywhere but nowhere. 9/11/2014 9

10 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will Furthermore, to say that God is a person is to deny the Trinity. 5. Christianity teaches that God is three persons or one substance made up of three persons. 6. However, since God does have something analogous to human intellect and will (the two things that denote a person), it is appropriate to think of each member of the Trinity as a person. 7. However, even God s intellect and will are radically different from ours. He is truly incomprehensible. Isaiah 46:9 "Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 9/11/

11 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will God is far beyond the concept of person. However, since He is not less than a person, person can appropriately be applied to each member of the Trinity. 9. The point is that God is not less than a person (like a tree or a rock). God is more like us than any other creature, even if He is infinitely higher. 10. God is also beyond gender. He is not a man. He is IS, a verb. However, we only have 3 human pronouns to use of God: he, she, it. There are very good theological and philosophical reasons that the Bible chiefly, but not exclusively, uses male imagery with reference to God. Moreover, Christ told the disciples to address the first person of the Trinity as Father. 9/11/

12 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will.10 Passages: Heb. 11:23-27; 1 Cor. 10:1-11; 2 Tim. 4:10; 1 John 2:15-17; 2 Cor 12:7-10; Titus 2: The human will drives a person to good, perceived or real, for happiness. Even when we seek something we know is bad, it is always because something good is in it. In other words we want good. This is undeniable and incurable. 2. We are surrounded by both limited and Unlimited Good. The more a person is oriented to short-term sensed, limited good, the more sensate the person becomes in their basic orientation and character, and the less human he is. 3. Due to man s fallen nature, his inclinations are dominated by his lower sense limited appetites, which are indeed very powerful. In man s fallen state, his emotions tend to dominate his will and intellect. Man s reason is often like a drop of water in a sea of sense appetites and emotions. It is obvious that something is terribly wrong. 9/11/

13 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will Freedom of the will comes from its spiritual ontology as well as the nature of the finite goods that it seeks. Due to its ontology, it desires infinite good. Due to the finite nature of its object, the will is free to accept other goods. 5. Man is not free with respect to his desire to be happy. The freedom is only in the direction: God or power, admiration, money, hedonism. The more a person is oriented to sensed goods, the more he will destroy his love for God 6. The worst thing about reversionism is that the believer no longer sees God as his greatest good. At salvation, his will went through a radical reorientation to God as Ultimate Good. However, in reversionism the believer no longer sees God as His greatest God under which all other goods are subsumed. He reverts back to longing after the world. He now lives for short-term goods, which means his life is boring, except when his senses can be excited once again. 9/11/

14 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will There are four steps in every free decision of the will. a. First step: temptation. This consists in the attractions exercised by some good on the will. Say, for example, a college student is studying for a final and gets a text from Suzie, who invited him to go with her to a party. Such an attraction is natural and unavoidable. He sense appetites are attracted by the thought of the pleasure of going out with her. There is no freedom in this step and therefore no responsibility, and no possible guilt. A temptation is but an attraction exerted on the will by some perceived good, in this case a pleasure. But in this case the good really is an evil. 9/11/

15 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will.10 b. Second step: consideration and examination of the attractive good. As he looks at the attractive good, he also sees other features which are not so desirable. If he goes out with her, he will flunk the course and perhaps become more involved with her than he should. - The attraction is due to good sides of the object. But because there are bad sides to this attraction, he is free. As he concentrates more on the good, he will be more attracted. But as he emphasizes the bad aspects, he feels more free to resist the attraction. - If he is drinking or stoned or in some diminished state, he may only see the good sides of the object and therefore be unable to resist. - Of course, the believer has far more resources to consider: Infinite Good of God and His plan. However, can give himself over: he can see her as a good/evil that only needs to be confessed later. - Consider the difference between a Christian and non-christian. 9/11/

16 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will.10 c. Third step: the reasons for and against a course of action are examined more thoroughly by the intellect: Study for test or go partying with Suzie? - He weighs the pros and cons, much like scales with the weights, noting the advantages for each course of action. - The side on which the heaviest weights pile up will finally go down and stay down and his will necessarily follows it. The will always follows that it deems the best course of action, the good. - Again, freedom here is more or less restricted for those who are mentally challenged, neurotic, or in a diminished state. 9/11/

17 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will.10 d. Fourth step: the decision. Stay home and study all night or go partying? - Sooner or later he decides, This is good for me now. - At this point the bad features of the object are overlooked and concentration is on its attractiveness. - Once that decision has been reached, the will must follow it and embrace the object presented by the intellect. - Note that the decision is not the result of a purely intellectual process or objective state of affairs, nor of social pressure, nor of upbringing, nor of past education. All these factors influence his decisions, they do not determine them. - The decision comes from the depths of one s notion of good. It is an absolutely free decision. Man is free because he can choose to consider both the good and bad of a limited good. 9/11/

18 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will The syllogism for the will that lives for short-term goods. (a) That which is good must be willed. (b) This action or object is good for me now. (c) Therefore this action or object must be willed now. 9/11/

19 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will As a person is, so things appear to him. A person who is a hedonist is going to see his good very different from a believer who lives under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and thus perceives and seeks God and the plan of God as his greatest good. An immoral person, believer or unbeliever, will see goods very differently than a moral person. 10. Each man shapes his own being and character daily by the exercise of his freedom. Yesterday s freedom affects today s, and today s already casts its shadow over tomorrows. 11. Although early environment may bring a bad influence on the development of character, we can, to a great extent, overcome that influence through free will effort. However, a child that is brought up in immorality will have less freedom than a child who is brought up morally and spiritually. However, freedom is always there for anyone to make the radical shift of the will to Infinite Good. 9/11/

20 Beatitude #6: Purity of Heart and the Will The First Cause s giving existence to man entails giving him existence as a free agent. To be human is to have free will. 13. The First Cause as Supreme Good continuously invites and attracts man s will for goodness. However, man does not consciously experience God s goodness. Consciously, this activity takes place in man s desire for finite goods. 14. Man is free to accept or reject the invitation of the Supreme Good; to yield to, or to resist, His goodness. We accept and yield to Him when we choose those finite goods that lead us to Him. We reject Him when we choose those finite goods that lead us away from Him. 15. Attraction to the Infinite God/Good in the natural order takes place by reason. However, supernatural attraction to God as the Author of the goodness of grace is only known through the virtue of faith and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 9/11/

21 The Three chief Spiritual virtues THE HUMAN WILL AND VIRTUE 1. The three theological virtues of faith, hope, and love have as their material object God. This infused grace toward God is the fountainhead of all other virtues for the Christian life (1 Cor. 13:13; 1 Thess. 1:3; 5:8). Unless and until the believer comes to the realization that life really is all about God, he will not get it. God does nothing that does not have as an end his own glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 9/11/

22 2. The first theological virtue is faith. It is the foundation for all other virtues. It is in faith where a person receives both the imputation and impartation of divine righteousness, Rom. 1:17; 5:1-8; 2 Cor. 5:6-11; Titus 3:3-8; Heb. 10:38; 11:6; Hab. 2:4. The direct object in theological faith is God, certain knowledge of God. a. It is by faith that man comes to know God, Eph. 2:2-10. b. Faith is an act of the will, an appetite of the intellect, John 3:19; 16:8-11; Acts 16:31; Isa. 41: c. There can be no faith until the will consents. Man has the freedom to look to other things as good, John 3:19. d. The knowledge of God one gains in faith goes beyond rational grounds, but never in opposition to rationality. 9/11/

23 e. Loss of faith leads to evils of - Agnosticism, apostasy, skepticism, and atheism; - destruction of hope in God, and thus despair and cynicism; - destruction of love of God, and thus apathy, antagonism, hate, distaste for ultimate good, which fragments the soul and causes psychological pathologies as a person seeks meaning, purpose, and other goods in the world and others; - departure from God, 1 Tim. 6:10-11; 2 Tim. 4:10; 1 Cor. 10, cf. Judas and Demas and the Laodiceans. 9/11/

24 3. The second theological virtue is hope. a. After the intellect understands the concept of future with the Lord, the will consents to this future as good. b. The emphasis of hope is always on future happiness with God. It seeks God as He is desirable for personal fulfillment and happiness. It is the will that both believes and places hope in God. 1 John 3:3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 9/11/

25 4. The third theological virtue: love. a. Second-person fellowship love for God is the summit of all theological virtues as it governs and drives all spiritual virtues, John 14:15-27; 2 Cor. 5:14; Eph. 3:16-19; 6:24; 1 Pet. 1:1-9. b. Second-person love for God for the believer begins with 2 nd order will. c. The theological virtue of love is all about the will, intellectual affection. Of course, knowledge must be there, but it is the will that attaches itself to the object of love. In love the will is oriented to God as the supreme good of life. This means that there must be a 2 nd order will for such love. d. Personal love for anyone includes two desires of the will: a desire for the good of the beloved and a desire for union with the beloved. This is also true of second-person love for God. 9/11/

26 e. Second-person experience is always characterized by joint attention. This is no less true with intimate second-person with God. God is always present with direct and unmediated causal and cognitive connection, but can be hidden from human view f. Requires that the lover is integrated around the good. Resistance to the good in the plan of God always translates to resistance to God. The more fragmented a person is, the more he will have difficulty uniting Himself to God or even to himself. He will live a fragmented life (w1 and w2). There is always the danger that love for God will be destroyed by opposing good in w1 and w2. 9/11/

27 g. Second-person love for God in V-2 and V-1 is impossible apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit, Gal. 5:22. h. Second-person love for God is the giving of the will (surrender) to God. This is abandonment of any resistance to God. i. Second person love is characterized by a selflessly active devotion to the interests of the person loved. j. In second person love, the lover desires union with the beloved. k. In 2 nd person love the lover identifies himself with the object of his love. 9/11/

28 The remaining spiritual virtues and the will in Galatians 5: The mechanics are according to concurrence of man s desire (2W) and God s efficacious grace (2V, 1V). 1. The will and joy. Spiritual virtue of joy takes place as the will lives in loving enjoyment of God. This supernatural virtue of joy is because the will is in possession of its highest good, God. There is always joy when the will finds its fulfillment in God s goodness. 2. The will and peace. Consider the will, the affection of the intellect, in relation to the virtue of peace. There can only peace when there is a union of the inclinations of the appetites. Without a united will, there can be no peace. This requires knowing virtue in the will to be directed to good and away from false goods. However, we can never attain perfect and ultimate peace in this life because of our disordered will and sense appetites. 9/11/

29 3. The will and patience. Patience describes the attitude of the believer toward challenging people and circumstances. When the will is in love with God, there is always the fruit of joy, peace, and long-suffering. Patience is a choice. 4. The will and kindness. To be kind and be of a beneficent character is a choice working in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. 5. The will and goodness. To be good and of a benevolent spirit is an act of will. 6. The will and faithfulness. It is the will that is crucial in steadfastness in all of the conflicts of the spiritual life. The will makes a decision with regard to the discharge of duties. 7. The will and meekness. Consider how the attitude of submission is all in the will. 8. The will and self-control. What could be more important than the will in selfcontrol? 9/11/

30 MAN S DISORDERED RATIONAL NATURE DUE TO THE FALL 1. The disorder in man of not being able to subordinate his sense-based appetites (emotions) to right reason is powerful evidence of the Fall. Indeed, something is manifestly wrong with man. Man ought to act rationally. Man knows that his sense-based appetites should be subordinate to right reason, but often they are not. Why do we lose our tempers? Why do we do things we know are wrong? As per hylomorphism, there is a strong connection between the body and the mind/intellect (cf., Original sin, addictions). 9/11/

31 2. Even in our regenerated state, the senses have a powerful influence. We do not have direct control over our sense-based appetites and emotions like we do with body parts, like raising a hand. We are to control the images and phantasms. 3. Our wills, more than anything else, determine our character: Every time we give into a vice, we make the vice stronger in us. Every virtuous act makes us more virtuous. So, if we spent our entire young lives giving into vices like temper tantrums, then we will be a mess, with neurotic wills as adults. If we spend our time learning and living the Word of God, then we become more virtuous, both on the natural and supernatural levels. It comes down to the will, not the content in the intellect. 9/11/

32 4. The will moves the intellect as an agent. The intellect proposes the object but it is the will that says go after it or reject it. 5. The intellect moves the will with respect to the end. The intellect is where we know something. For example, I may see as good material goods. That in turn moves my will to seek material goods, money. 6. Free will always either accepts or rejects the judgments of the intellect. The judgment of reason is the last judgment of the intellect. E.g., This is what you should do: go help that little old lady, but the will can say, I don t want to do that I don t like her. You may know you should help her, but the will has the ability to say, I am not going to listen to you. The will is like the arbiter in what the intellect is proposing. While the intellect and conscience can tell you what you ought to do, the will can say no. 9/11/

33 7. Having free will means not having to do what God wants you to do, like in the Garden. You can say no. Freedom is defined as absence of all antecedent necessity both internal and external. 8. However, the will is not totally free. It always chooses on the basis of some perceived/rationalized good. The only reason we sin against God is because we do not see clearly the absolute goodness of God. Thus, the need for the ministry of the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine. 9/11/

34 9. Man s freedom comes from his will by which he can judge what he is going to seek or avoid. In other words, because man is rational, he is free, not determined. 10. We are made for Good and Happiness/Blessedness. Happiness is the fulfillment of every desire and the elimination of every evil. This is impossible apart from God. 9/11/